Israel-Hamas Conflict, 1 Year Later

  • Background: 10/7/2023 Hamas surprise attack on Israel.

    • Estimated Palestinian dead ~45,000 (66% children & women).
  • Problem: Hamas Ministry of Health (MoH) casualties, unconfirmed.

    • Claim: “Women & children disproportionately killed” UN-OHCHR
  • Research Question: To what extent can open-source data be used to identify patterns in the targeting of Palestinian civilians in Gaza?

Methodology: Analyzing Civilian Casualties

Data Source: Airwars tracks casualties from conflicts.

  1. Web Scrape: ~ 900 incidents (~11,000 deaths), & store in SQLite database.

  2. Reverse Geo-coding: Query Nominatim API with coordinates, return site type (school, hospital).

  3. Sentiment Analysis: Derive emotional tone from assessments.

  4. Clustering Analysis: Cluster incidents geographically to discern civilian casualty patterns.

Results: Casualty Rate, Sentiment Analysis

Results: Hierarchical Clustering